Like the Back of My Hand
by MyCedarChest
Summary: Sometimes seeing is believing.
1. Chapter 1

Like the Back of My Hand

Chapter 1

He slowly opened his eyes only to find his vision blocked by a somewhat messy head of strawberry blonde hair. He slowly pulled his head back so he could focus better on the woman currently laying half on top of him, her left hand placed tenderly on top of his arc reactor. He continued to watch her as she breathed deeply in her slumber, her exhales slowly moving one strawberry blonde strand of hair to and fro as she breathed. Deep within her slumbers and at peace, she looked half her age. He watched as the muscles in her forearm quivered slightly, standing out under her milk white skin as she moved her hand in small, gentle circles over the arc. He smiled as the morning light was reflected in brilliant flashes from her wedding ring as she continued to move her hand. Her eyes were now moving rapidly under her closed eyelids, her blond eyelashes twitching intermittently, lost in the throes of her dream. All thoughts of going back to sleep vanished quickly from his mind as he continued to look at her, slowly edging the comforter down on her body, exposing her further to his curious gaze.

They had made love numerous times during the night and early into the morning as was expected given that they had married yesterday. The morning light enveloping their bed was soft, growing warmer and brighter as the minutes went by. The last thing he wanted to do right now was to wake his bride up, but his innate curiosity was making it harder by the second to stay still. He carefully eased out from under her, pulling in a pillow as a surrogate chest for her to lie on as he gently turned her fully onto her stomach. She sighed quietly, as he breathed out a breath of relief in succeeding to not wake her from her peaceful repose.

He knew that this morning had already been filled with many 'firsts' for him. And he suddenly realized that another 'first' that he wanted for today was to be the first in their relationship to memorize his spouse's body; absolutely every square inch of it. The engineer in him quickly formulated a plan. His personal survey was going to be methodical, of course, starting first with her backside, and hopefully rolling her over onto her back without waking her so he could observe in detail and commit to memory her more complicated front side. His hands and body had been quick to memorize her body by touch during the night and into the morning hours as they made love, but his eyes ached to feast themselves upon her body during the light of day. Those patterns of freckles on her skin were practically begging him to be deciphered and cataloged.

As the sun continued to rise, warming up the air around them, he slowly pulled the comforter lower on her body exposing both of her shoulders to his view. He knew that with her body type and metabolism, she always had trouble maintaining body heat, and he would not risk chilling her in order to satisfy his own selfish needs this morning. Therefore his plan was to go slow and let the rising temperature of their bedroom compensate for the loss of the comforter as he slowly revealed more of her body to his eager gaze. Within minutes, he had already memorized the pattern of freckles on both shoulders, both surprised and amazed at the symmetry between them. He gently pulled the comforter down lower. Her shoulder blades flexed slightly as she hugged the pillow closer to her in such a way that made him almost give up his visual expedition and once again pull her body in to his. But she quickly settled back down and his eyes once again turned to the task at hand; as he pulled the comforter lower still. The pattern of freckles became less dense as his gaze continued to travel lower down her body. He noticed how her spine curved gently, the muscles in her back clearly visible under her smooth, pale skin as she sighed deeply. Given her fitness regimen, he knew that she took her body's well being quite seriously. Her long, petite torso was both lean and taunt.

As the sun's rays continued filling up their bedroom, he continued his explorations slowly pulling the comforter down past her gorgeous derrière. He couldn't help but smile at the sight of her luscious globes. He was only slightly disappointed at the lack of freckles there, but he quickly decided that the view was wonderful, freckles or not. He had spent the better part of the last 11 years fantasizing about exactly how this part of her anatomy would look, and seeing her perfect bum in the flesh was so much better than any of his fantasies had ever been. He could now see clearly what his hands had felt during their wedding night. He suddenly remembered a saying from his childhood about 'the face that launched a thousand ships'. And as his eyes continue to linger over her perfect pear shaped tush, he knew that that a 'face' couldn't possibly hold a candle to the magnificently shaped cluster of muscles and milk white skin that now lay before him. Against his will, his own ship had definitely starting to launch now, and he quickly shut his eyes trying to tamp down the beginnings of an erection that threatened to derail the completion of his current project. Even though he had done his best to be gentle during their lovemaking, as he opened his eyes again he noticed the beginnings of small bruises on both sides of her buttocks where his fingers had obviously found their hold while in the midst of passion. The thought that he had marred this beautiful creation of fitness and form caused his erection to deflate rapidly. Yes, he would definitely apologize to her.

Pulling the comforter down farther, he marveled at the sheer elegance and biological engineering that were her legs. Even though he had been secretly admiring her legs for years, this was the first real close up view of the backs of her thighs and knees for him. He observed that there were a few scatterings of freckles running down the backs of each thigh. She shifted slightly in her sleep and he couldn't help but become fascinated at the flexing of her hamstrings under her tight skin. He then noticed a faint thin scar at the top of the back of her left thigh, apparently long healed. The muscles under the scar were less pronounced, indicative of the cut being a deep one. He felt his heart clinch at the thought of his woman injured and bloodied.

One last gentle pull at the comforter and her calves and feet came into full view of his questing eyes. No doubt her extraordinary calf muscle development was due in part to those sexy high heels she wore so often. His eyes closed involuntarily at the memory of removing her high heels from her feet last night and massaging each foot thoroughly as her low moans found their way from deep inside his soul mate to his ears. He realized at the time that he would do anything for her in order to hear those sexy sounds again. And, as he recalled their continued lovemaking, he was pretty sure that he already had, and more than just a few times too. There was one interesting set of freckles on her right calf muscle and another small scar on the outside of her left ankle. But other than those two discoveries, her lower legs and feet were free of any other marks. They were in short: perfect. The memory of her legs as they wrapped around his waist during last night and earlier this morning quickly sent a shiver up his spine. He quickly regained control of his libido so he could turn her over without waking her.

He tenderly covered her body with his own, eliciting soft moans from her, but her sleep otherwise undisturbed. He realized then just how exhausted she must be in order to continue to sleep with the light of day rapidly increasing inside their bedroom. After all, she was a morning person by nature. He smiled to himself, suddenly proud to be the reason for her deep slumbers this morning. He placed his right hand tenderly on her right hip and slowly began to turn her over onto her back.

"Shhh" he whispered in a low soft voice "I need you to roll over, OK?" he whispered into hair as he continued to turn her body over.

"Ohhh…kay." She whispered back drowsily, her eyes remaining closed.

As she came to rest on her back, he covered her body again with his own, placing his head lovingly against the side of her neck between her head and her shoulder. His right hand tenderly rubbed soothing circles on her left hip as he waited for her to fall back into a deep sleep.

A warm breeze drifted into the window of their bedroom as the day continued to warm, the sun drifting higher into the cloudless morning sky. After a few minutes, he was satisfied that she was now firmly back once again in dreamland. He slowly leaned up on his left arm pulling himself away from her body and looked down on his wife. Her long hair lay fanned out on the pillow, a few strands of her strawberry blond curls framing her relaxed, radiant face. He remembered back to the middle of the night, when they had agreed to an impromptu communal shower. She had used an herbal facial scrub to wash her face clean of make-up. Even through the lustful haze that followed the actual cleansing part of their shower, he remembered being struck then with the radiant glow of her freshly scrubbed face. He recalled with a shiver her wet head slowly moving down on his body, trailing open mouthed kisses until she reached her destination as she proceeded to give him what he considered was the best fellatio he had ever had in his life. He had been amazed at her skill, passion, **and **the fact that she had swallowed every drop of his seed. And of course he had returned the favor with equal passion once he recovered enough to carry her out of the shower and into their bed. That particular memory caused a low moan to escape his lips and he had to take a deep breath to calm down in order to return to his task.

As he looked down onto her face, he noticed that she had just a light smattering of freckles on her forehead and chin. But the freckle pattern across her nose and cheeks was so dense that it reminded him of the star pattern found through the center of the Milky Way galaxy. He smiled to himself at this comparison. He remembered reading somewhere that freckles were often thought of as 'God's tattoos', and since he had already considered her his personal heaven on earth, it was only fitting that her freckles would only add to her divinity.

He looked down at her long, elegant neck on which curiously few freckles were to be found. There were, however, numerous light, mouth shaped bruises all along her neck along with small patches of beard burn. He winced at the sight and vowed again to be gentler with her the next time.

His eyes drifted lower to the tops of her shoulders. There he found an amazing number of freckles, concentrated towards the ends of each of her clavicles. He noticed how the muscles in her shoulder stood out prominently against her collar bones. He again marveled at the strength of her body as he turned his eyes towards her right arm. His gaze quickly blazed a path down the beautifully toned, long, slender arm, ending up at her petite, life saving hand. A few freckles could be seen along the skin covering the outside of her bicep, along with a few on her forearm. His inspection of her left arm produced similar results as her right but with the extra bonus of him once again being thrilled to see her wedding ring as it stood out against her slightly pinked ring finger. He couldn't help the possessive thrill that ran through his body at the sight.

His eyes quickly focused on her chest as if heeding a siren's call. Even though his hands and mouth had memorized her breasts during their lovemaking in the darkness, seeing them for the first time in the light of day was indeed a long awaited pleasure for him. He discovered a clustering of freckles on the smooth skin covering her sternum, the freckles becoming less dense as his gaze traveled to each of her breasts in turn. The areola of each breast was a deep cinnamon in color with a perfect pink nipple in the center of each one. He remembered back to last night's lovemaking sessions and how her breasts had molded against his chest framing his arc reactor perfectly, as if their bodies had somehow been made for each other. He couldn't help but notice the small bruises and evidence of beard burn on the smooth skin surrounding the areola of each breast. Definitely more apologies were now required. He made the decision then and there that he would start shaving in the evenings too.

As his eyes continued their travels south, he was able to make out a faint line of freckles ending at her innie belly button. On either side of this line was a set of abs any woman would give her eye teeth to have. Not too muscular, just sleek, strong, and very, very sexy. He remembered his tongue mapping out this particular part of her anatomy several times during the night. Her small innie belly button had captured his attention during the night too, and he could see small patches of beard burn surrounding it. He tried to take some solace in the fact that the beard burn on this area of her body appeared to be minimal.

Residing less than six inches below her belly button was his manna from heaven. Framed in dark auburn curls with red highlights was the reason he was having a hard time controlling his libido at the moment. He knew that he would never, as long as he lived, forget the taste of her honeyed pot, as well as the smell of her aroused body. It was like being suffocated in vanilla and honeysuckle with the tang of salt mixed in. He shivered involuntarily as he closed his eyes; flashbacks from last night as he brought her to orgasm with his mouth almost overpowering him. After a few seconds of forced control, he was again able to proceed with his morning's project.

After he finally forced his eyes away from her center, he found himself looking over each supple and strong thigh in turn. Again his mind returned to the powerful feel of these same strong thighs wrapped forcefully around his waist, pulling him deeper into her wet heat. He shook his head slightly and focused again on his task. To his surprise, only a few freckles were found on either thigh. However, as he gazed dropped lower to her knees, he **was** surprised to find clusters of light freckles just at the top of each of her knees. The stockings she usually wore obscured these freckles from casual view, and the possessive part of him suddenly wanted to keep those freckles hidden from every other man but him forever. Damned right he was possessive. He had been possessive of her long before Afghanistan, but it took that cave and Yinsen's words to realize the reason behind why he hated sharing her with anything or anybody: He was in love with her and had been for years but had been too blinded by his own ego to even recognize or acknowledge the fact. He smiled as he remembered back to their wedding ceremony yesterday and the absolute joy that he had felt when she had said 'I do.' At that moment he knew for a fact that he was the happiest and the luckiest man on the planet because the love of his life had just agreed to spend the rest of his life with him.

"Care to explain, Mr. Stark?" she asked softly as she began to stretch languidly on the bed directly below him.

He met her amused gaze but only after his eyes had lustfully tracked all of the movements of her body as she stretched. He knew that his hand had obviously been found in that proverbial cookie jar, but he didn't care. "I am not entirely sure what you are talking about, Mrs. Stark." He deadpanned, attempting to distract her by leaning his body over hers and kissing her lightly on the lips.

"I wake up to find you looking at my knees as if you want to devour them." She explained with an amused twinkle in her eyes.

"Yeah" he began leaning down to brush their noses together tenderly, then pulling back to look down on her lovingly. "your knees were just the **last **of many parts of your body I want to devour." He waggled his eyebrows at her suggestively. "My project has now officially been completed and I am happy to report that I am the first one in our relationship to memorize every square inch of your body by touch, taste, **and **sight."

She chuckled softly. "So you think you are the first one, huh?" she countered "For the last year and a half I have seen you naked more times than even I **can** remember as I searched your unconscious body for injuries. I have counted, categorized, and treated each and every bruise, cut, and scrape that you have gotten, as well as sewing up more gashes than I **want** to remember."

He ducked his head down in defeat. She was right and he knew it. She reached up with her right hand and tilted his bearded chin back up so their eyes once again met. Her eyes suddenly sparkled with mischief. "However, there is **one** part of your anatomy that I haven't totally memorized by sight yet." Her left hand reached down to cup him gently in her hand. "But I plan on doing **that** while you are wide awake so you can watch me." She looked at him with half-lidded eyes as his own eyes widened in both surprise and anticipation.

After lusting after her body for the past 40 minutes, it only took him only a few seconds to harden completely in her hand. He squeezed his eyes closed tightly as he tried to gather his thoughts and ignore his now throbbing member. He wanted to do right by her and that included proper apologies. "Please don't be too mad at me when you see the bruises and beard burn I put all over your body. I am sorry about that. The last thing in the world I ever want to do to you is hurt you and you know that. But I just lose all control when I make love to you."

She released her grasp on him and smiled up at him warmly. "I think I'll just take that loss of control on your part as a compliment. But I do believe that we're pretty even here." She said tracing his neck with her fingertips and grazing over some rather prominent passion marks. "I'm afraid that I gave you some fairly spectacular hickies on your neck and chest, as well as some very impressive fingernail marks on your back and that sexy ass of yours while in the throes of passion myself, Mr. Stark."

That would explain the intermittent tweaks of discomfort on his back and backside since he woke up all right. He smiled broadly at her, suddenly proud to bear the scars of her passion for him, and then he leaned down to kiss her passionately. Her arms pulled him on top of her and he quickly braced himself up on his elbows and knees, keeping the majority of his weight off of her. "I guess we're even then, Mrs. Stark." He whispered.

He could now smell her arousal as his erection brushed up against her center. He pulled back slightly and looked down at her hesitating. "Let me know if you are too sore, Pep."

She looked up and him and brushed his stubble covered cheek with her fingertips tenderly. "I'm just a little sore," she admitted "how about you?"

"Yeah" he began reaching down to brush his lips against her neck softly. "I'm a little sore too, so if you don't want to…"

In response she pulled him into her again for yet another passionate kiss as she replied quickly. "Of course I want to."

As they continued kissing, he slowly pushed into her, giving her time to adjust to him again and hoping like hell that he wasn't hurting her. She was so wet and slick that he immediately forgot just how sore he really was. He found the pressure surrounding his shaft was both soothing and stimulating at the same time. He sped up his thrusts as he felt her body move even closer to his and felt her hands grab onto his backside as she pulled him even deeper into her body. His breaths quickly transformed into pants as he moved his head down to rest next to her neck on their pillow and he began to kiss her neck tenderly doing his best not to bruise or burn her with his beard.

"Look at me, Tony." she called out to him, her own breath clipped and labored.

He raised his head up and looked down at her, smiling at the look of love and passion on her face.

"I…. Love…. **You**." She managed to get out between breaths, as she leaned up and claimed his lips in a searing kiss.

He poured every bit of passion and love into that kiss and pushed her head back onto their pillow, his lips still attached to hers, their tongues becoming entwined. He suddenly felt her whole body tense in anticipation of her climax. After the kiss, he leaned his head back from her in time to see her ocean blue eyes darken with passion as they snapped open. Her eyes quickly searched and found his own eyes, and a deep guttural moan passed her lips as her orgasm overtook her, causing her to shake uncontrollably. The look on her face was like nothing he had ever seen before, and it thrilled him to realize that he would be the only man to ever see that look on her face ever again for the rest of his life. He quickly reached his arms around her shoulders in an effort to support and comfort her. As the tremors in her body started to subside, he felt the beginnings of his own orgasm start to take control of his body. Feeling her arms and hands move to his back as she started to rub soothing circles into his skin, he moved to rest his head along side hers on their pillow, trying his best to gain strength for his last thrusts before he orgasmed.

"Come for me, Tony." She whispered huskily into his ear as her strong arms pulled his hips into hers, grinding their pubic bones together.

He forced his head to rise up, his eyes capturing hers once again, and he felt his spine tingle and his body began to spasm as he began to surge into her in hot spurts.

"Love you so much!" he moaned as she smiled at the look of ecstasy on his face. He then closed his eyes tightly as his body started to jerk uncontrollably with each spurt. After he finished emptying himself into her, his body suddenly felt like it had turned to lead and sleep quickly threatened to overtake him. His last coherent thought was that this was how he wanted to go to sleep for the rest of his life; sated to the bone and in the arms of the love of his life.

He barely managed to pull out of her just before his limp body came to rest; his head nestled on their pillow just above her right shoulder, his right arm draped over her stomach, right hand resting on her left hip, and his right leg draped over both of her legs.


	2. Chapter 2

Like the Back of My Hand

Chapter 2

She lay there pinned to the bottom sheet of their bed by the hot, sweaty, and very heavy body of her husband of less than a day. Her right ear was currently being accosted by his soft snores and hot breath. But surprisingly it wasn't really **all **that uncomfortable and she briefly thought about just relaxing and taking a nap with him. Instead she craned her neck to look at his sleeping face and smiled to herself at how boyish his face had become in his sated slumber. She had been telling the truth to Tony about having seen his unclothed body many times during the last year and a half. What she hadn't shared with Tony was the fact that the times she had seen him naked were also the times that his body had also been covered with grease, sweat, blood, and most of the time her own tears as well. And nearly all of her views of his naked body had been under workshop lighting at best, with only the only quality light in the room being the surgical spotlight that she used when she had to stitch up the wounds that butterfly clamps, surgical tape, and Super Glue wouldn't fix. And since she knew that Tony would be passed out cold for at least the next hour, she thought that this might be a good time to do a little exploring of her own in the hopes of updating her own mental file on his body.

With her free left hand she reached across the bed and grabbed an unused pillow and placed it next to her. She struggled a little trying to pick up his right arm but she was somehow able to move and gently lay it along his side. She slowly wiggled both her legs out from under his heavy right leg at the same time sliding her right arm out from under his chest, suddenly grateful for all of those days in the gym weight training. She then grabbed the pillow and slowly pushed it under his chest as she pushed herself the rest of the way out from under his slumbering body. She suddenly froze as he stirred in his sleep and whispered her name. She immediately leaned over and brushed her lips across his forehead.

"Shhh Tony, I'm here." She whispered back as she stroked his exposed cheek tenderly.

Within seconds, his soft snores started up again. She moved to sit on her knees next to him on the bed, so she could take a good look at his body in the light of day. She heard the curtains rustle with the sea breeze as it blew into their bedroom. The day was warming up nicely. As she looked at the back of his head, the wind suddenly caused the curls of black hair at the base of his neck to move. She had made it no secret to him that she liked him with longer hair when they had started dating. But long hair just didn't work well within the Iron Man helmet. She had finally given up on ever seeing him grow his hair out again. So she was pleasantly surprised that he did not cut his hair before their wedding leaving it long enough to cover his forehead stopping just above his eyebrows and just above the collar in the back. As she continued to stare at those gently moving curls, she realized that she no longer needed to resist the temptation, so she reached out and slowly combed her fingers through his thick curls. He let out a low moan in response, but his body remained still.

Her gaze traveled to his broad neck and she watched in fascination as his pulse point throbbed slowly in time with his heart beat. The condition of his heart had been a major concern for her ever since he returned from Afghanistan. Since the Expo, she had developed the habit of placing her hand on the arc reactor whenever she was speaking privately with him. It just made her feel better when she could actually **feel** his heart beat. Her eyes shifted to inspect the large bruise that had formed on his neck as a result of her passion and she couldn't help but fuss at herself over its size. She was suddenly worried about how she was going to cover it up for him when they went out in public. But given that they were fairly self-sustained in their honeymoon cottage, being in the public eye would probably not happen anytime soon. And considering last night's and this morning's lovemaking, she seriously doubted that they would be traveling very far from even their bedroom anytime in the near future. She still reminded herself to keep her passion marks below his collar line from now on.

During one of their many soul searching talks after he became Iron Man, Tony had told her about his many hours pounding an anvil with a hammer while he was building the first Iron Man suit in Afghanistan. Between the forced exercise and the low fat food he ate, Tony came home from that cave with a much different body than he left with. Moving around in the Iron Man suit required a lot of muscle mass and Tony's weight had risen from his pre Iron Man weight of 165 pounds up to his current weight of 211 well-muscled pounds.

Her gaze continued down to his heavily muscled shoulders. She had always loved to watch his shoulders as he worked, without him knowing of course. It suddenly occurred to her that she no longer needed to hide her lusting over his body from him. She actually felt her heart rate increase as she continued to gaze at the well defined muscles that made up his shoulders. She reminded herself that all of these muscles were below collar level so they were therefore fair game for her later.

With that in mind, she started to formulate in her mind a list of places on Tony Stark's body that she wanted to mark as hers before their honeymoon ended. Number one on her list was, of course, his shoulders, and in particular his trapezius muscles.

Her eyes continued to roam down his well muscled back, as he continued to snore deeply, each chest expansion and contraction moving the muscles in his back enough to stop the rove of her eyes for a moment. She stared in fascination at the movement of those muscles as he breathed in and out. She realized that she wasn't as much fascinated as she was aroused. She suddenly felt the insides of her thighs becoming damp and she was amazed at how quickly her body responded to his. She had repressed her feelings of lust for his body for so many years and it felt so wonderful now just to be able to let her body react to his without any reservations.

As her gaze continued down his body, she sadly took note of the numerous scars on his shoulders and back, some thin and jagged and some thicker, and some having been stitched closed by her own hand. Since Afghanistan, Tony's body had collected more battle scars than she wanted to think and/or worry about. She ran her fingers tenderly over one of the larger scars on his right shoulder blade. This was the first gash that she had sewn closed herself. It had been a really deep cut, and it had bled quite heavily. He had begged her not to call a doctor or take him to the ER, and she had finally agreed to his pleas to sew it closed herself. The stitch patterns on this scar were not spaced properly, and she remembered that when she sewed this particular wound closed she had been shaking like a leaf in a wind storm. She was actually amazed it had healed as well as it had. Her eyes misted over briefly the memory. After that particular mission, she had contacted the SI lead physician and managed to talk him into some one-on-one training with her on emergency medicine, including wound care and stitching techniques. Dr. Bailey had been an employee of Stark Industries for 23 years, and he had been treating Tony since he was an adolescent. Dr. Bailey had been hesitant to train her at first, but Pepper had insisted and persisted until he finally agreed. It didn't take the doctor much time at all to figure out just why Pepper was requesting the specialized training, but to Pepper's knowledge he had never breathed a word of her private training sessions with him to anyone.

Tony had always had an incredibly high tolerance to pain, even before Afghanistan. After Afghanistan he had a body that could take an incredible amount of abuse too. His body was now very similar to the typical body of an NFL fullback: barrel-chested with incredible core strength, thick, well-muscled thighs and legs, incredibly strong shoulders, huge biceps, and a tush that could only be described as 'magnificent'. In short, he was built like a block of granite; and in her opinion, a very sexy block of granite.

Her eyes moved down to gaze at the collection of muscles and taut skin that made up said 'tush'. She remembered the circumstances surrounding the 2 inch long neatly stitched up scar on his right butt cheek. That particular mission had been a bad one. She remembered having to stand on the surgical table, her feet on either side of his waist and using a pair of vice grips to pull the piece of jagged metal out of his flesh. Thank goodness Tony had already passed out from exhaustion at this point so she knew that at least she didn't cause him any more pain as she pulled it out. It was the first really deep puncture wound on him that she had to treat. But she had thankfully remembered her lessons with Dr. Bailey well. So after she had gotten the metal piece out, she had irrigated the wound trying her best to make sure she had gotten all of the metal fragments out too, packed the wound with triple antibiotic ointment, and neatly sewed it closed. Luckily, the wound healed without infection and it had even became somewhat of a joke between the two of them with Tony insisting that she never tell the world that Iron Man had been 'shot in the ass'. He claimed that Iron Man's image would be forever tarnished if word ever got out on this particular injury. Pepper smiled at the memory and reached down to tenderly trace the scar with the fingertips of her right hand. She heard him groan in his sleep and watched as the muscles twitched slightly under her fingertips. Scars or not, Tony's ass had always been a turn on for her. Yes indeed, this part of Tony's anatomy was also going down on her 'to do' list of places on his body that she would be passion marking before their honeymoon's end.

Her eyes continued their exploration of his backside and she trailed her fingertips down the hamstring muscles of both thighs feeling the tight skin and muscles and gently pulling on his thick, coarse, black body hair. His hips shifted in his sleep in response to her touch, but then settled back down when she stopped touching him. Tony had limited body hair on his chest with the arc taking up space on what had been the only concentrated area of hair on his chest. But from the belt line down, Tony was built like a satyr with lots of thick black body hair. As her eyes continued to trail down his body past the backs of his knees, she stopped to admire his well-developed calf muscles. She noted that the circumference of his calf muscles was almost the same as her thighs.

She sighed to herself as she sat back on her heels and looked down on the sleeping man below her. It was going to be a challenge to turn him over onto his back so she could finish her explorations without waking him. Lucky for him, she was always up for a challenge when it came to one Tony Stark.

She lay down next to him burrowing under the side of his body that had been slightly propped up by the pillow.

"Tony," she whispered into his right ear "turn over for me."

He mumbled her name in his sleep as she began to gently push up on his right shoulder. As he slowly started to turn over, she moved her body up against his pushing up gently as she pressed her body into his. As he came to rest on his back with her body still pressed up against his, his arms slowly encircled her and he kissed the top of her head tenderly in his sleep.

"Love you." He mumbled into hair.

She smiled and kissed his chest just above the arc reactor. "I love you, too. Now go back to sleep."

She heard him sigh quietly as his arms slowly relaxed their grip on her. After a few minutes he started snoring softly into her hair. She pulled away from him slowly, leaning up on her right elbow as she looked at his face. The lines on his face had smoothed out as he continued to sleep peacefully. She noticed that his heavy beard growth had already started to blur the lines of his goatee. It was not unusual for Tony to have to shave twice a day. His beard extended down his neck to just past his collar line. She traced the line of his rough beard with her left index finger ending up at the juncture of his clavicles. He moaned deeply at her touch, his left hand instinctively reaching up to brush at her finger once before lowering back down to the bed.

She looked along and down each of his arms in turn noting his large bicep muscles and his well-muscled forearms. His arms had always been well developed in support of his inventive lifestyle, and being Iron Man had only helped his arms to become more endowed muscularly. She looked at each of his hands in turn. His hands were another part of his anatomy that had always turned her on. It had always amazed her that his hands were so strong and large, but yet so very capable of performing such delicate work. Her gaze stopped at his left hand and she smiled as she looked at his wedding band remembering the one word she had engraved on it: 'Per Sempre' which meant 'forever' in Italian.

Her eyes moved back up his arms stopping at the arc reactor, and her left index finger gently traced the scar tissue surrounding the arc reactor. She leaned down and planted a tender kiss in the middle of the reactor. Despite the unnatural origin of the arc reactor, she considered it as just a part of him now. His arms unconsciously reached for her and she leaned down to meet him halfway as he tenderly hugged her while still sound asleep. She kissed him tenderly on the shoulder and whispered his name as she hugged him back. He sighed deeply as his arms slowly disengaged from her body and he relaxed back into the mattress.

She leaned back away from him as her eyes drifted lower to his abs. His six pack wasn't chiseled, but the muscles there were thick and well defined. Dark body hair could be seen lightly scattered along his rib cage, but growing denser as it approached the mid line of his abs, down to his navel.

She took a deep breath and mentally forced her eyes to quickly skip over the black, furry patch of hair which surrounded and defined Tony's 'package'. In all the times that she had seen him naked, she had always maintained an internal shield of sorts with regard to said Tony Stark genitalia. The steadfastness of her shield was due to the conditions under which she had seen him in the buff in the past. He was usually disgustedly sick, drunk, or hung over before Afghanistan and so her natural curiosity had naturally waned in favor of just holding his eyes with her own as she took care of him. After Afghanistan, she was too intent on doing her best to repair whatever damages his body had sustained than to lust over his well-endowed body.

She looked intently at the set of quads that made up his thighs. She allowed the fingers of her left hand to trail over the thick, hairy, and well-defined quad muscles of his right leg. She smiled as he quietly groaned and moved his legs slightly at her touch. Small round scars could be seen against his skin scattered in a random pattern on both thighs. Given the number of jeans of Tony's that she had thrown away over the years because of burn holes, she knew that Tony had a habit of cutting metal sheeting without an apron and had collected lots of slag burns on his thighs over the years as a result.

His knees were knotty, bone and sinew overlaid with thick skin bearing lots of scars. His shins were much the same. Her eyes then came to rest on each of his feet in turn. She felt herself shiver involuntarily. As much as she hated to admit it, even to herself, his bare feet had always turned her on too. It seemed that her own shoe fetish had unconsciously resulted in her developing a preoccupation with men's feet…well actually just one man's feet in particular. Tony had relatively large feet (11.5 shoe size) for his height, and his feet were strong and well developed and proportioned to handle his large, muscular legs and waist.

She slowly leaned back up on her right arm and studied his boyish face intently. Yes, their married life would no doubt have more than its fair share of difficulties. But she knew for an absolute fact that despite those difficulties, they would somehow make their marriage into something greater than just the sum of the two of them. They both wanted children. But beyond their progeny, their marriage would also allow each of them to rise above each of their own sets of limitations and achieve more than they could ever do alone. She leaned down to brush her lips against his left cheek and watched as his lips upturned into a small smile as he slept. She knew that she had been **in love** with this man for years before Afghanistan, but she had always been in denial of her real feelings for him because she knew deep down that she couldn't really **love** him as he was. Iron Man had changed both Tony **and** her mind. She would now love this man until her last breath and beyond.

She suddenly remembered her earlier words to him and smiled as she leaned down over him, nipping his left earlobe with her teeth and then licking the inside of his ear with her warm tongue. She knew from her experiences with him last night and early this morning that his ears were **very** sensitive. He immediately shivered and squirmed under her. She laughed softly at him as she followed his ear with her tongue as he tried to wiggle away from her touch in his sleep.

She felt him suddenly grow still and she immediately pulled back to look at his face. He was now wide awake and staring intently at her, his eyes wide and dark.

She smiled at him and batted her eyes coyly, enjoying the look of surprise that crossed his face immediately in response. "I seem to remember making you a promise, Mr. Stark." She began as she moved her left hand down to gently caress his flaccid manhood with her left index finger from the root to the tip, feeling him instinctively arch into her in response as his eyes darkened even further. "I recall that I wanted to memorize this part of you while you were wide awake, and now that I've got your attention, I'm going to make good on that promise." She felt him tense up slightly as she slowly moved down on his body, her head coming to a rest directly above his pelvis.

As she looked intently at his body, she noticed that the skin of his manhood was darker than the surrounding skin, with two veins standing out against the smooth skin. His shaft was long and thick. The tip was uncut and she noticed that his foreskin was smooth as it covered the head, bunching up at the tip in a slightly wrinkled mass, which was now glistening with pre-cum as his shaft began to rapidly harden, growing even darker as his blood rushed into it. She watched the transformation in fascination as she deftly moved her right hand to cup his balls, her fingers massaging each sack in turn. She heard him groan and quickly glanced up to his face, noting that he had now closed his eyes, his mouth open slightly. She quickly looked back down again at his now rapidly hardening manhood, her eyes now back to work as she continued to commit every detail of him to her memory. He was fully erect now, and she saw his hips start to shift under her gaze. Even though she was trying her best to control her own libido, she felt her thighs flood with moisture at the sight of his full arousal, and she quickly leaned down to lick the pre-cum from his tip as he moaned with pleasure.

"Please tell me you intend to do more than memorize, Mrs. Stark." He pleaded through gritted teeth as she looked up and smiled at him.

"Oh, I intend to." She chuckled as she moved to straddle him, pulling her knees up on either side of his hips. She leaned down one more time to gently suck the head of his manhood, dipping her tongue into the folds of his foreskin and pulling an even louder moan from his lips. His hips twitched in response and she gently lifted the head of his manhood to align it with her own body. She closed her eyes and she slowly sank down on him as his large hands moved quickly to cover her hips. She slowly lifted up until he was barely inside of her and then immediately sank back down; taking him deep within her as she began a slow rhythm that she knew from her experience early this morning drove him absolutely crazy. After several repetitions, she opened her eyes and looked down at his face. His eyes were still closed, but his mouth was now drawn into a frown. She recognized that look immediately: he was pouting. As she sank down on him slowly again, she leaned forward and kissed him quickly on the lips.

"Stop being such a baby." She gently fussed at him.

"But Peeepppeerr, pleeeeease." He begged as he opened his eyes and looked at her, a small smile growing slowly on his face. He rubbed circles on his hips with his hands and he twisted his hips into her slightly.

She felt her breath hitch in her throat at the movement of his hips and she fought to maintain eye contact with him. "My expedition, my pace." She teased as she pulled up and lifted her hips up almost to the point of pulling him out of her.

Without warning, he suddenly sat up and pulled her back down onto his lap quickly as he moved his hands up her side, rubbing the underside of her breasts with his thumbs.

The shift of his body under hers sent shivers down her spine as he ground their pubic bones together. He then began trailing wet kisses down her right clavicle to her sternum and then back up her left clavicle. He knew her weaknesses too.

"No fair." He breathed across her left nipple as his hands gently helped lift her hips away from his. She realized quickly that his hands were not going to allow her to pull back quite so far as he was quite done with her teasing now. He pulled her down on to his lap again and their pubic bones bumped heavily into one another. They both shuddered at the impact and their bodies stilled momentarily.

"Oh my." She whispered closing her eyes grabbing on to his shoulders to steady herself as his hands greedily helped to push her up again.

Her libido had been simmering during her earlier explorations of his body, and that last pelvic thrust had turned up the heat within her to full boil now. Their previous lovemaking had been more for love than for sex. This time however it was definitely for sex.

She took a deep breath as she moved upward again trying to gain some sense of self control back, but as her hips met his again, she decided to just let go and let her much suppressed libido just take over. Not surprisingly her orgasm quickly overcame her just seconds later and she felt herself shatter around him. His hands quickly moved up to her shoulders in an effort to help keep her balance as stars suddenly swam before her eyes and her body felt like it was melting into a puddle of warm, and very sated liquid.

She became aware again as she found her forehead resting on his left sweaty and very sexy trapezius muscle that flexed as he raised and lowered her onto his lap. She could feel him still hard and huge within her. It took a few seconds of concentration before she could get her body back on line and squeeze her internal muscles around his manhood. She immediately felt him shudder, a low moan escaping his lips as he continued his rhythm of thrusts into her. Her leg muscles were slow to respond but within a few minutes she was once again helping to raise her body up from his lap, her arms wrapped tightly around his shoulders for balance. He leaned his head down and began suckling her breasts in turn and she shivered at the touch of his mouth on her nipples. She couldn't quite believe it, but after only a few thrusts she had become aroused again. She felt him speed up his hands on her hips, quickening her travels up and down along his shaft, and she knew that he was now getting close to his own release. Her arousal grew steadily as he started to twist his hips on each down stroke and she suddenly realized that she was now on the verge of yet another orgasm. She suddenly felt his body stiffen as he pulled her down on him hard, holding her there, his hips thrusting deeply up into her. He moaned loudly as she felt him start to surge hotly into her, his sweaty forehead coming to rest between her breasts. She gasped and let out a low moan as her own orgasm started and she pulled him even closer into her chest as the waves of pleasure washed over her. She could still feel him pulsing into her as her muscles milked every drop from him. She heard him groan again, the sound muffled by her breasts as his arms went around her back hugging her like his life depended on it.

They held on tightly to each other for a few minutes as their breathing and heart rates decreased slowly.

"On second thought" Tony's started, his voice muffled because his face was still buried between her breasts. "you can 'memorize' me any time you want."

She leaned down and planted a firm kiss on the top of his sweaty head. "Who can blame me for wanting to know your sexy body like the back of my hand, Mr. Stark?" She whispered into his hair.

He leaned back to look up into her eyes, his eyes twinkling with love and humor. He then gently pulled her left hand from his shoulder and he stared intently at the back of her hand as if memorizing it. "Gorgeous." He declared with a smile as he kissed her wedding ring tenderly "Just like the other 2,236 square inches of your own sexy body, Mrs. Stark."


End file.
